Cryptocurrency Daily Roundup - Jul. 12

Cryptocurrency prices continued to erode and are deep in the red Thursday morning amid weaker volumes.

The top four cryptocurrencies, led by Bitcoin, on CoinMarketCap were down more than 3 percent.

Overall cryptocurrency market capitalization dropped nearly $10 billion from a day earlier to $245.25 billion as of 10.03 am ET.

Here is a wrap of the main news from the cryptocurrency and blockchain space over the past 24 hours.

Bitcoin At $9K On WEX Exchange; Experts Warn

Bitcoin surged to about $9,000 on a relatively unknown cryptocurrency exchange called WEX on Wednesday, while the top cryptocurrency was broadly unchanged on other leading trading venues. The surprise spike in the price of Bitcoin on WEX caused market experts to warn of trouble. Read more...

In a strategic tie up, Litecoin Foundation has acquired 9.9 percent stake in Germany's WEG Bank AG from TokenPay Swiss AG, a crypto-to-fiat payments firm. TokenPay said it transferred its shares in the German bank to Litecoin Foundation in exchange for the latter's technical assistance in advancing the bank's plans to bring cryptocurrency payment solutions to customers and working with TokenPay on its various blockchain projects. Read more...

Palladium Launches Initial Convertible Coin Offering In Malta

Malta-based blockchain company Palladium has launched a fully Initial Convertible Coin Offering (ICCO), which it claims is the world's first ever. The company intends to raise 150 million euros and use the proceeds to support the three core blocks of Palladium's solution. The pre-sale of the tokens is on. Read more...

Bitcoin Owners Doubled In Canada: Survey

A survey conducted by the Bank of Canada shows nearly 100 percent increase in the number of people who own bitcoin in the country over the course of a year. The 2017 Bitcoin Omnibus Survey (BTCOS) was conducted in December, when Bitcoin prices reached all-time high. Read more...

Philippine Special Economic Zone Licenses Three Crypto Exchanges

A Special Economic Zone in the Philippines has granted for the first time licenses to three cryptocurrency exchanges to operate there. Hong Kong-based Golden Millennial Quickpay Inc. Ltd. (GMQ) is set to launch its cryptocurrency exchange and financial technology solutions business in the Philippines after securing its license from Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA). Read more...

Riyadh Municipality Joins With IBM For Blockchain Integration

The Riyadh Municipality in Saudi Arabia, in association with Saudi technology company Elm Co., has selected IBM to develop and integrate blockchain technology for government services, according to news outlet ITP.net. Elm, owned by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, and IBM will jointly develop an implementation strategy to facilitate government services and transactions to better serve customers digitally. Read more...